Linux Question(s)

[Whitehawk]

Hi all

how is everyone?


Im gettinq quite fed up with Windows XP and its quircks and I am serriously thinking about moving to Linux. The problems is I know absolutely nothing about Linux. My man query is what do all the different versions of Linux mean..and which is the best one?

I also hear that Linux is free...if so, where can I get it?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help - Alex

where to get it free

www.linuxiso.org

which for a newb.

mandrake or suse. (suse cost but im sure a memeber will be willing to hook you up with a free copy)

I suggestion not dumping windows completely. I suggest a dual boot as linux has a learning curve that is not learned over night

[bullgator]

I am making the switch also and have played with red hat and suse so far. I downloaded the iso's for redhat and the installs so far have been fairly easy. I also did the ftp install of suse and that worked like a dream. Coming from windows I liked how yast worked. Linux still does not recognize some hardware and peripherals well, so I suggest doing a fairly basic install 1st, then adding your webcams etc....later.
RedHat iso's are everywhere, just download,burn and install.
Here is a link to the newbie guide for suse ftp install.
http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/view/8737
And the Suse d/l page:
http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/


o, almost forgot, do not use a usb keyboard or mouse during the install !

[crouse]

Originally posted by bullgator

Here is a link to the newbie guide for suse ftp install.
http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/view/8737
And the Suse d/l page:
http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/

he he.... glad to see my article is making it's rounds through the net

The original article is located here:
http://usalug.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1310

along with about 6 pages of posts below it......

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As far as what is the best..... well, MOST people recommend Mandrake for those new to Linux.

Redhat or Fedora a close second and if your willing to buy it SuSe.

Whitehawk..... ygpm

[Tazzin]

Recent Linux newbie here...
Being a newbie I opted for Mandrake 9.2 from the recommendations of the people on here an elsewhere.

Installed it and it worked without a hitch on my PowerEdge 400SC server.

It depends on what you are going to use Linux for... configuring some of the add-ins like Samba, PHP etc takes alot of reading and tweaking. I finally got Samba setup correctly and it is working ... now it is time to move on to PHP and SQL

One word of advice... if you are planning on setting up Samba to connect to other windows machines... during the installation of Mandrake.. change the hostname to something other than localhost.

[bfcx]

Xandros Isnt a free distro but it's not to expencive ether. It's a great distro if you want everything to work right away and be similar to windows. It comes with Crossover office and you can install many of your windows applications on it right away. Also has a nice autoupdate feature. Everything is prepackaged so there's virtually no compatibility issues.

Only reason i dont like mandrake is cuz it comes with too much stuff and it's all dissorganized. I'm downloading fedoracore2 right now to give it a testdrive. The main selling point for me is 3d acceleration out of the box.

[soulware]

Originally posted by Tazzin
now it is time to move on to PHP and SQL

That stuff is a PITA to set up with package managers because there are so many dependencies and options that you have to work around; SQL support in PHP, PHP/SSL support in Apache, etc. Speaking from experience I can say that you're best off downloading and configuring the packages individually.

[zepper]

You might want to get Knoppix for a trial. Boots and runs totally from one CD. Having a substantial amount of RAM helps as it uses RAMdisk for working space. If you like it, you can easily install to your HD.
.bh.